"I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream — and I hope you don't find this too crazy — is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, 'Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!' That would be bad."
— C.D. Bales, "Roxanne"

Go to IAFC's website and check it out....no one is saying anything of the kind. The goal of the stand down is halt all non essential work and use that time to focus on safety. For paid departments, it probably means no inspections today, no hydrant testing, any physical work except for responding to emergencies. In our case (volly department), this Tuesday is our regular drill night. We will not be conducting any training, driving, maintenance, etc. that night...we will sit down and talk frankly about safety, and what we can do to make sure that we don't become one of the statistics....

"I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream — and I hope you don't find this too crazy — is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, 'Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!' That would be bad."
— C.D. Bales, "Roxanne"